Biofortification of eggs and pork with vitamin D as a means of increasing dietary supply

Biofortified foods with vitamin D may offer an additional strategy to traditional fortification approaches as a means of bridging the gap between current vitamin D intakes and recent new recommendations. Thus, the aim of the present work was to examine the effect of additional vitamin D 3 (D 3 ) and/or 25‐hydroxvitamin D (HyD) in hen and pig diets on total vitamin D activity of resulting eggs and pork meat. Sixty laying hens (Hyline; n 15/group) were allocated to one of the following experimental diets: basal diet plus either 1500 IU D 3 (T1); 3000 IU D 3 (T2); 1500 IU D 3 +1500 IU HyD (T3);or 3000 IU HyD (T4) per kg diet for 6 weeks. Thirty‐six finisher pigs (Large White, n 12/group) were allocated to one of the following experimental diets: basal diet plus either 2000 IU D 3 (T1); 1000 IU D 3 +1000 IU HyD (T2);or 2000 IU HyD (T3) per kg diet for 66 d. Vitamin D 3 and 25(OH)D content of eggs (at week 6) and pork meat was analysed in DTU using a sensitive liquid chromatography with tandem MS method. Following analysis, the total vitamin D activity was calculated as vitamin D 3 plus (25(OH)D X 5). The total vitamin D activity (mean + SD; two separate pooled samples per treatment) of eggs from diets T1, T2, T3 and T4 was 2.9±0.6, 3.8±0.3, 4.8±0.4, 5.1+0.8 μg/egg, respectively, while for pork from diets T1, T2 and T3 was 0.89±0.01, 1.17±0.09, 1.70±0.12 μg/100g, respectively. Inclusion of HyD in diets seemed to produce the highest total vitamin D activity in eggs and pork. In conclusion, biofortification of eggs and pork with vitamin D may be a useful additional approach for tackling low vitamin D intakes in the population.